As Media Credibility Dies, Obama Announces War on Free Press

Expressing nostalgia for the days when just three establishment-controlled propaganda organs dominated the public narrative, President Obama lashed out at what he called the “wild, wild west” media landscape that allows non-establishment voices and viewpoints to be heard. Claiming that “censorship” would not be the answer, Obama called for Americans to submit to a vaguely defined (presumably government-run) “curating function” that would help “discard” unapproved information. Critics, though, warned that an increasingly desperate establishment was plotting all-out war on freedom of the press and the free Internet.

Speaking at an innovation conference in Pittsburgh last week, Obama called for what analysts said sounded like a government crackdown on free speech and online freedom. “We are going to have to rebuild within this wild-wild-west-of-information flow some sort of curating function that people agree to,” he argued, expressing concerns about “conspiracy theorists” and skeptics of the man-made global-warming theory having a platform. Other senior Obama officials, including former “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein, have even proposed a government “ban” on conspiracy theorizing.

Praising the days when just three TV channels dominated the news and people still “generally” trusted their propaganda, Obama, implying Americans are too dumb to sort truth from lies without government help, said something had to be done about the free flow of information. “There has to be, I think, some sort of way in which we can sort through information that passes some basic truthiness tests and those that we have to discard, because they just don’t have any basis in anything that’s actually happening in the world,” Obama claimed. Apparently he was not referring to the establishment media-created alternate reality that is increasingly falling on deaf ears. Ironically, though, Obama has openly boasted about lying to the American people.

While short on details and how his scheming would square with the Constitution’s First Amendment, Obama’s comments sounded suspiciously totalitarian. “That is hard to do, but I think it’s going to be necessary, it’s going to be possible,” he said at the summit, without giving details on just how it would be done, much less how it would be done constitutionally. “The answer is obviously not censorship, but it’s creating places where people can say ‘this is reliable’ and I’m still able to argue safely about facts and what we should do about it.”

Some have speculated that Obama wants to create a government-run media organ, though that would probably have even less credibility than the government or the establishment media do now. Other analysts suggested that, despite the denial, censorship is exactly what Obama and the establishment have in mind. In the European Union, it is already well underway, with help from America’s biggest technology companies. Essentially, it sounded like Obama was calling for the establishment to set the acceptable parameters of debate, and then tolerate any views within the establishment-approved box while silencing any others.

“The way I would like to see us operate is, yes, significant debate and contentious debate, but where we are operating on the same basic platform, same basic rules, on how do we determine what’s true and what’s not,” Obama continued. “Everything on the internet looks like it might be true. And so in this political season, we’ve seen — you just say stuff. And so everything suddenly becomes contested. That I do not think is good for democracy, and it’s certainly not good for science, for progress, for government, for fixing systems.” Of course, America is a republic, but that is besides the point.

The establishment has good reason to be concerned — or perhaps even panicked. What was left of the increasingly left-wing “mainstream” media’s credibility is in tatters. Just 6 percent of Americans said they really trust the establishment press, according to a study by the Media Insight Project, a partnership of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute. Another poll released last month by Pew Research found that almost two thirds of Americans doubt the veracity and neutrality of information coming from the establishment’s once-powerful propaganda organs.

Among Republicans, awareness of establishment media deception is even higher. According to a Gallup survey released in mid-September, just 14 percent of GOP voters express trust in the mischaracterized “mainstream” media. Less than a third of Americans have even a “fair” amount of trust in the press, the lowest level since Gallup started its surveys on the question in 1972. One of the likely causes, Gallup said, was the widespread perception of media fawning over Clinton and unfairness toward Trump. “This may be the prime reason their relatively low trust in the media has evaporated even more,” Gallup said.

At the same time, alternative media outlets are surging, with the influence and readership of non-establishment sources exploding in recent years. Indeed, many “alternative” outlets opposed to the establishment’s misleading and often totally false narratives — conservative, libertarian, nationalist, anti-globalist, real liberal, and more — now have readership numbers that dwarf many leading establishment propaganda organs. And with the proliferation of media sources in the form of blogs, websites, magazines, Youtube channels, and more, the establishment narrative has imploded like never before in recent history.

Consider as just one example that even after years of constant propaganda treating the Obama-backed man-made global-warming theory as a fact, just four in ten Americans actually believe in the theory, according to a Pew poll. Even with the entire establishment press frothing at the mouth about Donald Trump — including the allegedly “conservative” establishment media such as National Review and Weekly Standard — Trump dominated in the GOP primary and remains ahead of Clinton in many leading national political polls. His rallies attract tens of thousands while Clinton struggles to bring out a few hundred.

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Amber

The “Curating ” function is already being done by the LA times and soon to be out of business Guardian Rag .
Isn’t it a bit bizarre that a President with less than a month to go is calling for a “curator ” Gee I wonder how this would go . Anyone that thinks the earth doesn’t have a fever will be silenced but we could have a healthy debate over who gets taxed the most to pay for the scam .
The “science is settled “patronizing nonsense on steroids .
Next they will want to eliminate cash so they can cut anyone off who doesn’t tow the line .
Obama is going to resurface as a lobbyist for the for “renewable ” corporate welfare
industrial complex . Count on it .
Billions spent on trying to sell the global warming scam and the population isn’t buying what they are trying to sell . How sad . The answer , a typical intimidation
reaction . Better silence the people who can think for themselves without being spoon fed garbage from three controlled news outlets .
It is plain where this is going without push back from people that will not accept the loss of their right to free speech and expression .

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Amber

If left wing pinko Saunders doesn’t like him he sounds like he has potential .
He looks like a guy with a bit of backbone and won’t be bullied by the Demo rat
whiners who have infiltrated the EPA .
Good luck Mr. Pruitt . …. hire security . When the looney tunes get desperate( and they are ) they go into ugly mode . Taking apart their $Trillion dollar con game is going to get them down right belligerent but who cares ? They did get about 1 % of the vote
after all . In other words the science fiction is settled in the minds of voters by about
99 % . The debate is over in their hot air world .
Drain away Mr. Pruitt the public backs you despite the shrill sound of whiners who just had their piggy bank broken .

Amber

The NASA data manipulators collectively don’t have an IQ over 38 . Bullshit merchants about to be out on their ass . Maybe Britain would like to hire NASA rejects .
Where oh where are Dicaprio and Gore going to get their alarmist propaganda ?
When is the much vaunted IPCC report coming out ? That’s right NEVER .
The jig is up they were played as useful idiots and are no longer required .
Did the IPCC hot pants smut writer ever beat those sexual harassment allegations ? Quality right through the organization .

Amber

Why would virtually no change to Antarctic ice in over 100 years be a surprise at all .
Whether it’s minus – 60 or minus – 58 certainly we know it is fricking cold and it is not about to thaw . Throw a few volcanos open below the surface and a part of it might
but if that is considered caused by climate change the science fiction is bigger than
we know .
The question is how much will the Antarctic grow by over the next 1000 years ?

Amirlach

JayPee

I’m willing to consider your argument, but I’m disturbed of your willing to give credence to the unproven and unfoundedly assumed presumption that CO2, CH4, and any other gasses that the extremist left hates are upon their dictum alone the mythical GREENHOUSE GASSES as they define them to be.

I ask you not to buy into their argument without the proof that they have never had.
They have always had conjecture, lies and hysteria and even a low percentage of consensus ( as if that means anything ).
But they have NEVER had proof of their mythical GREENHOUSE EFFECT ( as defined by the extremist left ).